HomeNewsBriefBrazil Policy Not Enough to Combat Wood Trafficking: Report
BRIEF

Brazil Policy Not Enough to Combat Wood Trafficking: Report

BRAZIL / 18 SEP 2015 BY ELYSSA PACHICO EN

A recent newspaper report describes how a government strategy meant to combat illegal logging in Brazil -- via the creation of special zones where private companies can harvest wood on protected land -- is falling short.

As reported by Folha, since 2006, the Brazilian government has allowed private companies to sustainably harvest tropical wood within select areas of Brazil's National Forests. This policy was intended to discourage illegal loggers from operating in these concession zones.

However, the report states that the market for sustainably harvested wood in Brazil is still minuscule -- most of this timber ends up exported to Europe. One Brazilian logging company estimates that over 70 percent of the timber traded within Brazil was harvested illegally. This timber is either given a fake certification of legality, or is sold in an informal market where no one checks the requisite documents.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Ecotrafficking

Thus far, the government's creation of these concession zones has failed to make the legal, sustainably-harvested timber market more attractive than the illegal market, the Folha report suggests. Tropical wood typically sells for about 150 Brazilian reales (about $39) for every cubic meter, versus 70 reales (about $18) for wood grown on plantations.

Nevertheless, by 2022, the Brazilian government wants 40 percent of all timber production in the Amazon to come from private concessions in National Forests. Currently, that number stands at one percent, according to Folha.

InSight Crime Analysis

Timber trafficking is known to fuel violence and crime in Brazil -- hundreds of environmental activists have been killed in the country, with many cases linked to illegal logging. While deforestation rates overall are going down in Brazil, illegal logging is still responsible for much of the problem, alongside mining and ranching.

SEE ALSO:  Brazil News and Profiles

Brazil has taken other steps to combat illegal logging, including creating a new special security force unit earlier this year, as well as employing the use of drones. However, one implication of Folha's report is that Brazil could do more to scrutinize the origins of its wood, given how common it is for traffickers to fake the requisite certification. As exposed in a 2014 report by Greenpeace, Brazil's illegally logged timber is often "laundered" in various ways -- including the creation of fake documents.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BOLIVIA / 8 MAR 2023

InSight Crime reviews Latin America and the Caribbean's cocaine seizure date from 2022 to find out what it reveals about…

BRAZIL / 8 SEP 2022

Brazil's largest gang, the PCC, could be trying to take over the marijuana business in neighboring Paraguay.

COCA / 2 JUN 2022

Rich in resources, Peru's Amazon is being plundered at an accelerated rate, losing more than 26,000 square kilometers of forest…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…